Envelope opener

ABSTRACT

An envelope opener having a small body to be manually grasped, with a groove along one edge of the body, sufficiently wide to receive an edge of an envelope to be opened. An oblique knife blade lies entirely within the groove, and a small guiding member projects forwardly from the forward end of the knife blade, to a visible position beyond the edge of the body, so that the guiding member may be inserted between the envelope flap and the rear wall of the envelope, at one corner of the envelope, to guide the top fold or crease of the envelope into the groove, whereupon the knife blade will cut the top fold when the top edge of the envelope is slid along the groove.

United States 4 Patent [1 1 Goffe v [451 July 23, 1974 ENVELOPE OPENER[76] Inventor: William L. Goffe, 301 Burnett Rd.,

Webster, NY. 14580 [22] Filed: May 30, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 365,075

[52] US. Cl 30/294, 30/314, 30/DIG. 3 [51] Int. Cl B26b 29/00 [58] Fieldof Search 30/294, 289, DIG. 3, 286,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 318,475 5/1885 Holden 30/294497,133 5 1893 Ropes 30/289 586,170 7/1897 Fairbairn 30/289 802,909 101905 Brisacher 30/DIG. 3 844,770 2/1907 Bauer 30 294 1,032,865 7/1912Sinnott 30/289 1,713,019 5/1929 Bowers 30/DIG. 3 1,753,710 4 1930 Mayer30/DIG. 3 2,266,916 12 1941 Steele 30/294 Jones 30/294 Hamilton 30/294 XPrimary Examiner-Al Lawrence Smith Assistant Examiner-J. T. ZatargaAttorney, Agent, or Firm-Stonebraker & Shepard [5 7 ABSTRACT An envelopeopener having a small body to be manually grasped, with a groove alongone edge of the body, sufficiently wide to receive an edge of anenvelope to be opened. An oblique knife blade lies entirely within thegroove, and a small guiding member projects forwardly from the forwardend of the knife blade, to a visible position beyond the edge of thebody, so that the guiding member may be inserted between the envelopeflap and the rear wall of the envelope, at one corner of the envelope,to guide the top fold or crease of the envelope into the groove,whereupon the knife blade will cut the top fold when the top edge of theenvelope is slid along the groove.

16 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures Pmminwm 8 3.824.688

SHEET1BF3 FIG. 2

"FIG. 6'

m/za 2.3 I}

.35 as FIG. 7 FIG. 8 FIG. 9

1 ENVELOPE OPENER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Many forms of hand-heldenvelope openers are known. Among them are, for example, British Pat.No. 603,942 (1948), Swiss Pat. No. 225,802 (1943), and US. Pat. Nos.586,170 (1897), 1,032,865 (1912), 2,187,634 (1940), 2,204,763 (1940),2,266,916 (1941), 2,439,639 (1948), 2,442,694 (1948), 2,535,555 (1950),2,748,478 (1956), and 2,814,111 (1957). All of these, however, exhibitdisadvantages of one kind or another. I

For example, in some of these the cutting blade is exposed on one orboth sides, so that it may be damaged by accidental contact with otherarticles or may accidentally cut the fingers or various articles notintended to be cut. In others, the cutting blade is protected fromaccidental contact, but is so placed that it will not operateeffectively on an envelope with a crumpled or wrinkled corner. In some,the blade is designed to cut a narrow strip from the edge of theenvelope, and actually may do this quite effectively, but this isundesirable when the letter within the envelope happens to be crowdedclose to the edge of the envelope which is being cut, for then theletter itself will also be cut.

In other known constructions, the edge of the envelope being cut is notsufficiently guided and controlled to prevent it from being deflected tothe junction be tween the sharp edge of the blade and the body materialfrom which the blade projects, thereby jamming the edge of the envelopein the mechanism. In other constructions, there is no guiding prong orprotruberance which can be inserted between the flap of the envelope andthe back wall of the envelope, to start the action, or if there is sucha guiding projection, it is in such a location that it is hard to insertthe projection at the proper place in the envelope, particularly whenthe corner of the envelope is crushed, wrinkled, or otherwise damaged.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the invention is the provision ofa simple, inexpensive, light, and compact manually held envelope opener,so designed as to overcome the objections to the above-notedconstructions of the prior art. This is done, according to the presentinvention, by providing a small body of convenient size to be heldbetween a thumb and finger, the body having a longitudinal groove alongone edge, wide enough to receive the edge of an envelope, which may beslid longitudinally along the groove. A cutting member has a sharpcutting edge lying obliquely and entirely within the groove, protectedcompletely by the side walls of the groove (on both sides of the cuttingmember) from accidental contact from any objects except the envelopeembraced in the groove. A guiding member has a prong or protuberanceextending forwardly from the vicinity of the outer end of the sharpcuttingedge, and projects forwardly a little beyond the forward edge ofthe body, so that the end of the guiding member can be readily seen bythe user, and therefore can be easily guided visually into the usualsmall space at the comer of the envelope to be opened, underneath theenvelope flap and outside of the rear wall of the envelope. This startsthe action, and the edge of the envelope is then slid longitudinallyalong the groove in the body of the opener (or the opener body is slidalong the edge of the envelope,

which amounts to the same thing) so that the cutting edge slits theenvelope along the fold joining the flap to the front wall of theenvelope. Preferably the guiding and cutting member is mounted on amounting block which is removably held in the body.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevation of theopener according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, showing itbeing inserted in a corner of an envelope to start the cutting action;

FIG. 2 is a'similar view showing the envelope with the opener moved mostof the way along the edge of the envelope, nearing the completion of thecutting or opening action;

FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the opener in side elevation (viewed fromthe opposite side shown in'FIGS. 1 and 2) with parts broken away to showthe interior construction, and with the blade and its mounting blockremoved from the body;

FIG. 4 is an end elevation or edge view of the device, with the partsfully assembled in operative condition;

FIG. 5 is avertical section taken approximately on the line 5-5 of FIG.4;

FIG. 6 is a bottom edge view of the device;

FIG. 7 is a section taken approximately on the line 7--7 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a section taken approximately on the line ,88 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 9 is a section taken approximately on the line 9-9 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 10 is a side elevation of an opener according to a secondembodiment; and

FIG. 11 is a similar view of a third embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings,the device has a main body indicated in general at 11. This may be madeof any convenient material, such as metal, wood, or plastic, which maybe either transparent, translucent, or opaque. Transparent plastic isfound to be very suitable. Regardless of which material is chosen, thebody may be all of a single integral piece, or may be laminated. It isconveniently made from laminated plastic, comprising a thicker centralmember 13, and two side plates 15 cemented or otherwise secured to thecentral core or filler 13.

The body is preferably of somewhat oval outline, and of a small sizeconveniently grasped between the thumb and forefinger of the user. Togive some dimensions merely as examples, and not as limitations, thebody may have a length of about 1% inches, a width of about 5/ 8ths ofan inch, and a thickness (including the central member 13 and the twoside panels 15) of about 3/ l6ths of an inch.

Along one edge of the body is a groove 21. When the body is oriented asshown in FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 5, the groove 21 extends along the loweredge, but of course the body may be oriented in any desired way, and theterms lower or upper and similar expressions are used merely forconvenience of description. This groove 21 extends throughout the majorpart of the length of the body, as shown. It has a width or thicknesssufficient to receive a thickness of ordinary commercial letterenvelopes. When the body is made of the laminated constructionillustrated, the groove is conveniently of the width or thicknessbetween the two side plates or panels 15, as illustrated especially inFIGS. 4 and 9, so that the side panels 15 form the opposite sides of thegroove. The top of the groove, when viewed as in FIGS. 4 and (or whatone would normally consider the bottom of the groove, when inverting thestructure and looking downwardly into the groove) is of V'- shaped crosssection, as illustrated, so that when the edge of an envelope or similararticle is inserted into the groove and pressed toward the top of thegroove (or toward the bottom, if considered from that standpoint) thecross sectional shape of the groove will tend to center the edge of theenvelope in the thickness of the groove.

It is seen that the apex 23 of the groove lies in what might bedescribed as a central plane, midway between and parallel to the flat orapproximately flat outer side surfaces of the body. Also lying in thissame central plane is a cutting and guiding member having a main portion31 provided with a sharp cutting edge 33 faced fowardly and extendingobliquely in the central plane above mentioned. From the forward end ofthe cutting edge 33, the member 31 extends forwardly as at 35, in ageneral direction approximately parallel to the general longitudinalaxis of the groove 21. This portion 35 constitutes a projection orprotuberance serving as a guide to be entered into the spaceat thecorner of an envelope between the rear wall and the closure flap, toguide the edge of the envelope into the groove 21. The guidingprojection 35 is not sharpened, but it is relatively small so as to beeasily inserted at the corner of the envelope. I

It is to be noted that the sharp cutting edge 33 lies entirely withinthe groove 21, and does not project out at all beyond the outline of thebody, so that it will not come in accidental contact with the fingers ofthe user, or with articles which might damage the sharpness of thecutting edge or be accidentally cut by the cutting edge. The guidingprojection 35, however, does extend appreciably beyond the outlineof thebody, so that it may be readily seen by the user and may be visuallyinserted into the proper place in the envelope. It may project, forexample, about l/4 inch or 5/ l 6ths inch beyond the outline of thebody.

Conveniently the portion 31 and 35 are formed integrally from the samepiece of metal, such as steel, and they are quite thin, havingapproximately the thickness of an ordinary razor blade as used in amodern safety razor. If desired, however, the guiding projection 35 maybe separately formed from the main blade portion 31, and may be attachedto the blade portion.

The portion 31 may be mounted in the body in any suitable way. It canbe, for example, molded into the body if the body is molded, or rivetedin place. Preferably, however, the base or butt end of the member 31 ismolded into a mounting block 41 which is detachably mounted in the body.This is best seen in FIG. 3, which is an exploded view illustrating howthe mounting block 41 can be withdrawn from the cavity 43 of the body,by motion in a direction parallel to the cutting edge 33. The parts arepreferably dimensioned so that the block 41 has a snug sliding fit inthe receiving cavity 43. But greater tolerance in dimensions is possibleif the parts are made with dimples or the like, such as a dimple orsmall recess 45 in one or both sides of the mounting block 41, toreceive a slight projection at a corresponding place in the body.

It will be noted especially from FIG. 5 that the body is cut awayorrecessed at 51 in the vicinity of the sharp cutting edge 33, so that thesharp cutting edge extends inwardly some distance beyond a straight linetangent to the upper edge of the part 35 and the portion of the apex 23which is closest to and just in front of the cutting edge of the blade.Such a line is indicated at 53, and this line represents the mostunfavorable angle that could be assumed by the edge of an envelope beingopened. Even at this angle, the edge of the envelope would engage asharp portion of the blade 31. There is no danger of the folded edge ofthe envelope jamming into the acute angle betweenthe blade and the thickmounting material 13 or 41, either before or after the cut of the foldhas been started, particularly before.

The recess behind the cutting edge slopes rearwardly, and is V-groovedat 61, to guide the advancing corner of the envelope into the rear partof the straight groove 21. As soon as the out has progressed about aninch, the edge of the envelope is held and guided by the apex 23 of thegroove behind the cutting edge, and now glides smoothly along the grooveboth in front of and behind the cutting edge and it cannot work up tojam against the blade where it meets with the body material whichsupports it.

Variations in the resistance of the envelope material and in the way theoperator manipulates the device, and variations in the condition of thecorner where cutting is' commenced, will cause some variations in theangle of entry, but in no case can there be any jamming, for the reasonsexplained above.

The relieved or cut away portion 51 of the body may also be thought ofas an enlargement of the groove. It is noted that this enlargement 51increases the free space around the cutting edge of the blade, so thatthere is ample space to receive the tiny fragments of paper whichusually result from the operation of cutting a fold in a piece of paper,and there is plenty of space for such tiny fragments to drop out of thegroove after completion of one cutting or opening operation and beforethe next envelope is opened, so that there is no accumulation of tinypaper fragments in the device.

Because the projecting guiding member 35 is clearly visible, it can beeasily guided by the user into the corner of the envelope, between therear wall and the closure flap, as illustrated in FIG. 1. This ispossible even if the corner of the envelope has been damaged in transit,as by folding or crushing as is often the case in the mail. Even such adamaged corner, as indicated schematically at the right of FIG. 2, iseasily operated upon in practice by the construction of the presentinvention. Because of the small size and readily accessible and visiblenature of the projecting end 35, it can be worked into even a crushedcorner of the envelope, without much difficulty. Then the device is slidalong the edge of the envelope, as indicated by the arrows in FIGS. 1and 2, and the edge of the envelope is thus cut open along its entirelength, Without damage to the contents. Of course it is a matter ofrelative motion, and it does not make any difference whether theenvelope is held stationary in one hand, and the opener is moved alongthe envelope (which is the action indicated in FIGS. 1 and 2) or whetherthe opener is held stationary and the envelope is moved along the grooveof the opener.

The cutting edge 33 preferably makes an angle of about 25 degrees to thelongitudinal axis of the groove 21. This angle provides optimum cuttingaction and promotes long life of the cutting blade. For example, morethan 2,000 envelopes were opened with one device, with the blade set atthis angle, with no apparent loss in ease of operation and noappreciable deterioration in the sharpness of the cutting edge.

The envelope opener in the form above described, with reference to FIGS.19, is the preferred form of the device, very compact, adapted to beheld between the thumb and one or two fingers, and of a size to beconveniently carried in even a very small pocket, such as the changepocket often found inside a larger pocket of a man s suit or overcoat.With this preferred size and shape of the device, the force ofoperation, once the cutting has commenced, is minimized by beingdirected simply along the edge of the envelope. Any additional force,such a torque about an axis perpendicular to the surface of theenvelope, is not needed, and actually can interfere with the smoothoperation of the device. Operating the device with a simple graspbetween the thumb and one or more fingers minimizes the chance ofaccidentally producing undesired torque, especially when the envelope ispulled or held by grasping it near the edge which is being cut.

However, some individuals may have manual dexterity problems that do notpermit an easy grasping of the device in the simple preferred form abovedescribed. For such individuals, an extension or handle'may bedesirable, of sufficient size so that it may be held in the palm of thehand and the fingers may be wrapped around the handle. One form of sucha construction is illustrated in FIG. 10, where the handle is shown at71, and the other parts are indicated by the same reference numeralsused for corresponding parts in FIGS. l-9, with the addition of theletter a to each numeral. This handle slopes in what may be referred toas a forward direction, so that, assuming that the envelope is beingheld stationary, the user grasps the handle and draws it toward him,along the edge of the envelope.

Another embodiment is shown in FIG. 11, where the handle is indicated at81, and the other parts are designated by the same numerals used inFIGS. 1-9 except for the addition of the letter b to each numeral. Here,the handle slopes in the opposite direction from the direction of thehandle 71 in FIG. 10, and the user grasping the handle pushes the deviceaway from him (assuming that the envelope is being held stationary)rather than pulling it toward him.

The device has been referred to as an envelope opener, and is designedespecially for performing such function. However, it may be used equallywell for cutting any folded piece of paper along the fold line. Thereference to an envelope opener, in the claims and elsewhere, is merelyfor convenience of description, and is not intended in a limiting sense.

What is claimed is:

1. An envelope opener comprising a relatively flat body having oppositeside surfaces approximately parallel to each other, said body havingalong one edge a narrow groove sufficiently wide, in a directionperpendicular to said side surfaces, to receive an edge of an envelopeto be opened, said groove having a bottom which is of V-shape in crosssection at least near a front end and a rear end of said groove, withthe apex of the groove lying substantially in a central plane parallelto and substantially midway between said opposite side surfaces of saidbody, the V-shape of said groove servdinally along the edge of theenvelope while being pressed against such edge, and a guiding andcutting member mounted in said body at an intermediate point betweensaid front end and said rear end of said groove and projecting from saidbody obliquely forwardly into said groove, said member having a cuttingportion with a forwardly faced sharp cutting edge lying substantially insaid central plane and extending obliquely from the bottom of saidgroove outwardly and forwardly toward said front end of said groove,said sharp cutting edge lying entirely within said groove and beingincapable of contact with any object not located within said groove,said guiding and cutting member including a guiding portion extendingforwardly from the forward end of said cutting edge to a front endprojecting materially beyond said front end of said groove, both saidcutting portion and said guiding portion of said member being relativelythin in said direction perpendicular to said side surfaces and lyingsubstantially in said central plane, said front end of said guidingportion projecting beyond said front end of said groove sufficiently farto provide a readily visible nose for insertion between a body wall anda sealing flap at a cornerof an envelope to be opened.

2. A construction as defined in claim -1, wherein said sharp cuttingedge extends at an angle of about 25 to the longitudinal axis of saidgroove.

3. A construction as defined in claim 1, wherein said forwardlyprojecting guiding portion of said member extends in a general directionapproximately parallel to the longitudinal axis of said groove.

4. A construction as defined in claim 1, in which said cutting andguiding member has its rear end mounted in a mounting block, and inwhich said mounting block is detachably mounted-in said body of theenvelope opener.

5. A construction as defined in claim 1, in which said cutting portionand said guiding portion of said member are of substantially the samethickness in said direction perpendicular to said central plane.

6. A construction as defined in claim 1, in which said cutting portionand said guiding portion of said member are integrally formed from thesame piece of metal.

7. A construction as defined in claim 1, wherein said fiat body is of asmall size adapted to be grasped, during a cutting operation, between athumb and one or more fingers.

8. A construction as defined in claim 1, wherein the bottom of saidgroove has a recess in the vicinity of said sharp cutting edge, and saidsharp cutting edge extends into said recess to a point further into saidopener body than a straight line tangent to the uppermost part of saidguiding portion and to the apex of the portion of said groove nearestthe forward part of said recess.

9. A construction as defined in claim 8, wherein the rear portion ofsaid recess slopes rearwardly to the apex of the portion of said groovelying rearwardly of said sharp cutting edge.

10. A construction as defined in claim 1, in which said body of saidenvelope opener has a mounting recess extending inwardly from the bottomof said groove, and in which said cutting and guiding member is mountedon a mounting block insertable into and re- 7 movable from said mountingrecess and having a snug fit therein.

11. A construction as defined in claim 10, further including resilientdetent means tending to retain said mounting block in said mountingrecess.

12. A construction as defined in claim 10, in which said mounting recessand mounting block are so shaped that insertion and removal of saidblock relative to said recess takes place in a direction substantiallyparallel to the direction of said sharp cutting edge.

13. A construction as defined in claim 1, wherein said flat body isprovided with an extended handle elon- 15. A construction as defined inclaim 13, wherein said handle is sloped forwardly relative to thelongitudinal axis of said apex.

16. A construction as defined in claim 13, wherein said handle is slopedrearwardly relative to the longitudinal axis of said apex.

1. An envelope opener comprising a relatively flat body having oppositeside surfaces approximately parallel to each other, said body havingalong one edge a narrow groove sufficiently wide, in a directionperpendicular to said side surfaces, to receive an edge of an envelopeto be opened, said groove having a bottom which is of V-shape in crosssection at least near a front end and a rear end of said groove, withthe apex of the groove lying substantially in a central plane parallelto and substantially midway between said opposite side surfaces of saidbody, the Vshape of said groove serving to center the edge of anenvelope midway in the width of said groove as the opener body is slidlongitudinally along the edge of the envelope while being pressedagainst such edge, and a guiding and cutting member mounted in said bodyat an intermediate point between said front end and said rear end ofsaid groove and projecting from said body obliquely forwardly into saidgroove, said member having a cutting portion with a forwardly facedsharp cutting edge lying substantially in said central plane andextending obliquely from the bottom of said groove outwardly andforwardly toward said front end of said groove, said sharp cutting edgelying entirely within said groove and being incapable of contact withany object not located within said groove, said guiding and cuttingmember including a guiding portion extending forwardly from the forwardend of said cutting edge to a front end projecting materially beyondsaid front end of said groove, both said cutting portion and saidguiding portion of said member being relatively thin in said directionperpendicular to said side surfaces and lying substantially in saidcentral plane, said front end of said guiding portion projecting beyondsaid front end of said groove sufficiently far to provide a readilyvisible nose for insertion between a body wall and a sealing flap at acorner of an Envelope to be opened.
 2. A construction as defined inclaim 1, wherein said sharp cutting edge extends at an angle of about25* to the longitudinal axis of said groove.
 3. A construction asdefined in claim 1, wherein said forwardly projecting guiding portion ofsaid member extends in a general direction approximately parallel to thelongitudinal axis of said groove.
 4. A construction as defined in claim1, in which said cutting and guiding member has its rear end mounted ina mounting block, and in which said mounting block is detachably mountedin said body of the envelope opener.
 5. A construction as defined inclaim 1, in which said cutting portion and said guiding portion of saidmember are of substantially the same thickness in said directionperpendicular to said central plane.
 6. A construction as defined inclaim 1, in which said cutting portion and said guiding portion of saidmember are integrally formed from the same piece of metal.
 7. Aconstruction as defined in claim 1, wherein said flat body is of a smallsize adapted to be grasped, during a cutting operation, between a thumband one or more fingers.
 8. A construction as defined in claim 1,wherein the bottom of said groove has a recess in the vicinity of saidsharp cutting edge, and said sharp cutting edge extends into said recessto a point further into said opener body than a straight line tangent tothe uppermost part of said guiding portion and to the apex of theportion of said groove nearest the forward part of said recess.
 9. Aconstruction as defined in claim 8, wherein the rear portion of saidrecess slopes rearwardly to the apex of the portion of said groove lyingrearwardly of said sharp cutting edge.
 10. A construction as defined inclaim 1, in which said body of said envelope opener has a mountingrecess extending inwardly from the bottom of said groove, and in whichsaid cutting and guiding member is mounted on a mounting blockinsertable into and removable from said mounting recess and having asnug fit therein.
 11. A construction as defined in claim 10, furtherincluding resilient detent means tending to retain said mounting blockin said mounting recess.
 12. A construction as defined in claim 10, inwhich said mounting recess and mounting block are so shaped thatinsertion and removal of said block relative to said recess takes placein a direction substantially parallel to the direction of said sharpcutting edge.
 13. A construction as defined in claim 1, wherein saidflat body is provided with an extended handle elongated in a directionat a material angle to the longitudinal axis of the apex of said groove.14. A construction as defined in claim 13, wherein said angle is about25*.
 15. A construction as defined in claim 13, wherein said handle issloped forwardly relative to the longitudinal axis of said apex.
 16. Aconstruction as defined in claim 13, wherein said handle is slopedrearwardly relative to the longitudinal axis of said apex.